Valve has confirmed the availability of Steam Big Picture for the Mac. Released as a beta (for now) this weekend, Steam Big Picture enables you to put your gaming experience on the big-screen TV in your living room. If you’re on the Mac, the Apple TV is a requirement.
“Why give up your games, your friends, and all that you love about Steam when you play games in the living room? With Big Picture, we’ve reformatted Steam for use with your TV and game controller, so you can enjoy your Steam games from the comfort of your couch,” says Valve.
To enable Big Picture, simply launch Steam on your Mac, navigate to Steam Account Settings, change your Beta participation to Steam Beta Update, and click the Big Picture button located at the top-right side of the app’s interface.
With OS X Mountain Lion and Apple TV, you can switch on Airplay, grab a controller (mouse and keyboard also supported, says Valve) and play your favorite Steam games from the comfort of your couch.
“Pick up your game controller or liberate your keyboard and mouse - the choice is yours,” reads the description over at steampowered.com. “Big Picture, paired with your controller, makes for a powerful match. You can navigate Steam, surf the web, and even chat. Oh, and play games too.”
Note that if you haven’t accessed Steam for a while, it might need to download some updates as you launch the app, so be patient. The process is automatic and takes no more than a minute.
For those who are just now getting acquainted to Steam on the Mac, a download link awaits below. Version 1.1 has been good to go since July this year. The code-savvy team at Valve have managed to maintain an almost bug-free Steam client on OS X since its inception in 2010.
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